By Dan Jones
Intel Corp has back-pedaled on its support for the PC133 memory specification, announcing that it is evaluating a PC133 board as a sop for nervous OEM customers who fear that Intel’s preferred Rambus DRAMs will be costly and unavailable in volume when the 820 chipset is released in the third quarter this year. The move is a humiliating climb-down for Intel which has been gung-ho about supporting Rambus since 1996 and consistently said that it will move to Rambus as its main memory source for PCs.
Dan Francisco, Intel’s chipset spokesperson, said that the company was evaluating a chipset using PC133 SDRAM chips, probably based on its 440LX chipset, for release in the first half of 2000. We’ve heard some concerns from [OEM customers] that the transition is happening slower than expected, Francisco said. And he said that the attractive price of SDRAMs on the market at the moment was another reason that Intel was now considering the board.
Francisco said that Intel was still right behind Rambus and denied that the evaluation of a PC133 represented any kind of a climb-down. However, recent moves in the PC133 space show how Intel’s position has softened. The 820 ‘Camino’ chipset has always been able to support SDRAMs through a cumbersome adapter, however, Intel had been insistent that Rambus would be its main memory choice, with SDRAM reserved for graphics applications. Then, late last week, Intel announced that it would be introducing an improved method for connecting PC100 and PC133 SDRAMs to the chipset.
The news will hearten PC133 supporters such as a VIA Technologies Inc – which has just introduced its first PC133 board (see separate story) – and increase acceptance of the alternative memory specification. The Taiwanese PC chipset designer bought together a dozen vendors including IBM Corp, NEC Corp, Hitachi Corp and Siemens AG’s Infineon Technologies Group behind the PC133 specification.
